Comparing Pictures, Restarting Egoscue

I talked with Paul today because I'm ready to get serious again with my Egoscue therapy. I am looking now at the picture of me frontal compared to that of 3.5 years ago. Between that time I've only done Egoscue off and on, so Egoscue is not to blame for the fact that my trunk leans left more, and my neck leans right more. I concentrated on keeping my feet straight out for today's shot, but that's not how they naturally fall.

The main symptom I'm having is dental-related: my right teeth touch but my left teeth don't. I have to force my lower jaw to the left for all teeth to touch. This is a good tip-off that I need some muscle balancing! Remember, bones (including those that make up your jaw) do what muscles tell them to do.

 I know that I'll have to put some time into this to get my balance and bite better. I am ready to do what is necessary. We could be talking an hour a day or so. And then the Tower wedged somewhere in there as well. But I am 43, not 73, so if I step confidently in the direction of my dreams (to have a normal bite and not lean so much), I will get there!

Write if you have experience with muscles and bad bites and Egoscue...and anything at all, really!

Recommended Egoscue to Someone with Hip Issues

I have done 5 days of Egoscue and walking around the block each am and it has been good.

This am I spoke with Lynette for whom I'd recommended doing Egoscue. She said that it has helped a lot for her hip, so that’s great. She was very grateful that I'd turned her onto the therapy. Apparently her hip kept popping out of place, or something like that.

Also she has done research on metal on metal hip implants and Europe has stopped doing them because there are so many who are allergic to the titanium. The full hip replacement is worse than the spinal Harrington rod like I have because it’s a movable joint and metal is ground away daily.

But she reminded me that I need to do the MELISA test to find out what materials my screws are made of – and the wires and hooks and washers.

Lynette also said she knows a woman who had titanium screws and had seizures after surgery because of allergy. For nine years she wore a helmet to protect herself. Then had screws out and seizures stopped.

But I digress from Egoscue, and how I'd like to do it daily again!!

My New Health Website...

Please visit me at AmandasHealthJournal.com

...is now up and going strong. I mention Egoscue on it but plan to write more about my experience in the next few weeks.  Amanda's Health Journal focuses on the things that will improve anybody's health if they do some of these things consistently.

I talk about the need to breathe calmly and deeply every day, qigong, Earthing, spending attentive time in Nature. Funnily enough, all my time doing Egoscue I wasn't doing any other exercise. For the last 12 years I didn't run or go to the gym or do squat thrusts in the comfort of my own home. Now that I'm back into strengthening and cardio (I run barefoot on the beach - not too far yet, but working on it!), my body is feeling stronger and better. But still stiff, as I work muscles that have been on vacation for years.

Egoscue and Starting Again

The menu I did this morning

A. You think I'm psycho because I keep starting and stopping Egoscue. 

B. You completely understand because you've been there too; life just gets so busy that Egoscue falls by the wayside. 

WELL, as of today, no more. The trick for me was to look at it as not something that I had to squeeze into my day quickly ("Ayayay do I really have to do 40 minutes of Egoscue before I sit at my desk in the morning? Where is the time?!"). Instead I said this to myself: "I want my body back. I want to be flexible again. I know I can get there. Every morning from 10:00-11:00 I am going to do Egoscue in a leisurely fashion, not rushing, and afterwards I will do some yoga or strength training to get strong again." 

You should see my little list I have taped onto the wood stove. It says this:

1 minute: goalie squats (going back and forth, knees bent, as if you were going to save a soccer goal)

30 seconds: squat thrusts

1 minute: jumping jacks

5 push-ups

10 leg lifts

You should see me huffing and puffing doing these things. But my plan is to do these daily so that they get easier and easier, at which point I will up the reps.

Not rushing = good.

Egoscue and Scoliosis

This is what my spine looked like pre-surgery

Here is an Egoscue Portland's blog post about scoliosis and Egoscue that is pretty amazing because it shows  the before and after pictures of a woman who did an Egoscue menu of ecises for an hour and a half. If I had known about this Method 20 years ago I might not have the steel rod that is fused to my spine right now!

The picture above is similar to the xrays that were taken of my spine before I had my spinal fusion in 1984. I had an 'S' curve of 51 degrees. The surgeon was able to straighten out the larger curve to about 12 degrees. Is my stiffness now due to the rod? I don't know. But I do know that Egoscue helps my body feel right again. Not stiff. Free. But only if I do the ecises.

This morning I did Static Back for five minutes, Airbench for two minutes, and the foot and heel circles for 40 reps. Bending over the sink afterwards to wash my face - again, a delight.

The Egoscue Book I Own

This is the book that I follow. A new copy is under ten dollars at Barnes & Noble. I highly recommend it if you want your body to feel better.

When you read it you'll understand how we've gotten into the mess that is our bodily alignment. One of the illustrations depicts figures sitting side by side. One is sitting upright, posturally aligned, and therefore 'functionally', while the other is slumped forward in her chair, a sad and dispirited lady (p. 177).

The book will make it clear, for example, how we could very easily be causing wrist pain if we sit all day with a head that's forward from the shoulders, which are forward from the hips. The tricky part  is actually doing the ecises that make your body feel much better. Here I am touting a book that has helped me so much and I still don't consistently do my half hour menu. Although I will happily say that I do manage about 4 ecises in a row right out of bed each day. It makes leaning over the sink to wash my face in the morning a delight.

Egoscue and Walking

Doesn't this invite you to a walk on the beach?

My Egsocue therapist advised me to do my ecises first, and then go out for a walk. Or play soccer. Or jump on the trampoline...with my body better aligned. I've been mixing and matching my menus along with the ones in Pain Free and whichever ones I do, the better my body feels. I don't have the patience to do all 10 of them in a row, so I do four here and three there and two over there most days.

This a.m. I did Wall Clock (yes my hips can still move forward in this one - a novel idea) for 1 minute in each of the three positions, Arm Circles (quick and easy), and the Tower for 20 minutes total, which I guess used to be called Supine Groin Stretch. But now look at me: bum near edge of chair, back of shoulders leaning on the back of the chair, hips woefully tipped backwards. If only I didn't have a day job and I could do Egoscue and movement all day long...I bet I would be feeling pretty good! Thankfully I have these ecises to do, every day, for my body to feel right again. The Tower occupies a very prominent position in my living room.

My Thoughts on Egoscue of Late

One of my Egoscue Menus

Here are my many thoughts on Egoscue:

1. I need to do it every day.

2. I woke up this morning, stiff. Did 3 Egsocue ecises and all stiffness left.

3. I love Egoscue.

4. I need to do it every day.

5. I wish my menu didn't take so long to do.

6. I don't understand how it works but it does.

For the past few months I'd been doing the neck exercises and more recently the ecises for the hips. I got these menus right out of the book, Pain Free. They work great. But I was sporadic in doing them and only did the ecises when I was feeling stiff and creaky (I sit all day for my job).

The hip menu includes the one that you can do on the Tower, which I love. Although I wish you could read a book when you're in Tower. I have been doing five minutes with the left leg on the top rung, five minutes with the left leg on a middle rung, then repeating with the right leg. I get up and I can walk around without feeling 80 years old. How does something so simple do that?!!?

This morning I dug up my old menus that Paul had written for me last year. There are three which he said to rotate. They take from 30-40 minutes. In my book, that's too long to be expected to do every day. Which is why I moved to the ecises menu in Pain Free - they're shorter. But I am going to return to doing Paul's, because they're personalized. I may leave out a couple though.

Have I said that I love the Tower?

Have Completed a Month of E-cises for my Neck....

and I love Egoscue!! It's been months since I've written, and in that time my neck got pretty stiff! I could lift my chin and turn my head to the left, but not to the right because it just wouldn't go there without pain. So for the past month, once or twice almost every day, I did the five Egoscue E-cises for the neck, and voila, you should see me move my neck now!

It still makes crackling noises, but I am not complaining.

I have moved on to the HIPS now. This is because for the past several months (yes folks I am aging - but not for long!) my left hip feels like it's turned out to the left and so when I bend over it feels weird. Plus my left foot has always been super everted (turned outward). So today was my second day on the hip e-cises. I am confident it will improve.

And by the way, I am just doing the "Pain Free" menus, straight from the book.

I just wish I could better explain to others why Egoscus is so necessary for so many of us. The best I can do is say: we are not aligned! Our ankles, knees, hips, shoulders and head are not stacked in a straight line as they should be.

More soon.

Too bad my mother didn't know about this 25 years ago

I saw this today about scoliosis and egoscue. When I was 15 and had an S curve rapidly increasing in my spine, my mother took me to three doctors for three opinions. They all said surgery and Harrington rod, which is what happened. Too bad we didn't know about this 25 years ago:

http://egoscueportland.wordpress.com/2010/02/04/scoliosis/

2nd day on the Tower

This am I did it again. Top three levels for right leg, five minutes each level. Then repeated on left leg. I felt nothing in back area. I did feel it in my hyper-extended knees. I have to gingerly bend my knee out of a level when time is up. When standing, it takes a couple of seconds before knees feel normal again. BUT, I did ten jump squats afterwards, and I think my knees cracked less! We will see. Also it seemed like my left foot was not acting its usual everted way as I walked around the living room.

Good thing I asked my husband to take this photo b/c I was able to see that I needed to turn my left foot in more, which is easy to do in that easy chair.

So, once again, my routine this morning was:

Static Back - 5 minutes
The Tower - 30 minutes total
Air Bench - 2 minutes

The Tower

It's been sitting, assembled, in my living room for weeks. I finally did the exercise this morning for the first time. I played this video while I lay there. I did five minutes on each of the top three levels on the right leg, then the same for the left. Good thing I was listening to the video as I lay there because my knee felt hyper-extended, and that was addressed by the therapist. He said that the tower doesn't feel great for people with knee issues while they're in the exercise (and I don't have pain there, but I do have very creaky knees as we all know) but afterwards you feel good.

I didn't notice much in my back. Then again my back doesn't arch at all because of my spinal rod. I really just felt the hyperextension of the knees. Also my foot was turned out a bit but I couldn't manage to pull it back in. I'll take a picture next time.

A half-hour for this exercise is pretty good! I'll work up to the hour. I also did Static Back for five minutes before the Tower, and I did Air Bench for two minutes after that. Of course, my body felt better after doing these three ecises than it did before. Then I did ten jump thrusts. My knees didn't creak for the second half of those. I believe that I need to strengthen my muscles (in addition to egoscue) in order for the creakiness to fade. Sitting at my desk all day doesn't really strengthten muscles. Just so you know.

On to "The Tower"!

I had stopped doing my egoscue exercises for weeks. Then started again with the Pain Free book ecises for foot pain. Which was great because it only took 12 or so minutes. Then when my heel pain lessened I started doing the ecises for the allover body conditioning. Which was also great because it too only took me 12 minutes. I have proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that the egsocue ecises make my body feel significantly better.

Then why oh why do I not stick with the program?? We all lead busy lives and so many of the things to do each day are priorities - I guess my pain/discomfort is not now great enough to make me do the exercises. But I do fully intend to start them up again. Actually I still do two ecises a night - the static back, which I love, and the heel/toe flexes. I do those every night before I get into bed. Two I can handle.

Nicole from Egoscue Santa Monica called today to ask how it was going. I told her the above. She said do what you can, two ecises are better than none, and if I'd like them to shorten a menu somehow I should call. I do plan to do this at some point. She also told me about "The Tower" and how fantastic an ecise it is. If she doesn't do it regularly she will feel it. I googled it and see that it is an improvement upon the older ecise, called Supine Groin something I think, in Pain Free. I also see that you can buy the Tower for $130.

So I just now called Nicole, to ask if she thought I should buy this thing. She said absolutely. It's very recommended in fact for people with scoliosis. She said try to do it for an hour (!!! I guess I will use the time for meditating! or hgtv) 3-4 times a week. Do static back first, then the Tower, then the Wall ecise (I forget the name!).

Jeez, an hour. I'm sure it will be worth it though. Nicole said to be prepared for possible burning and discomfort etc as the back learns to let go and flatten. Oh and even more exciting, I can buy a timer to count down my ecise moments. Which is something that will be quite handy and helpful!

Heel Pain Has Subsided Again!

For the last three days I've been doing those four ecises for foot pain AND my heel pain is definitely much better. Egoscue does work. Doing only four ecises feels much more manageable to me. There's just something about a 40 minute routine (needing to be done every day) that is just so off-putting! Even if it does make you feel so much better afterwards! Isn't it crazy? Anyway I will continue these four Foot ecises til, just like he says in the book, the heel pain goes away for 24 hours. Then will do them for a week longer. Then switch to the body routine. Does anyone think that's a good idea? Thanks.

I'm Back

Okay I'm back on the egoscue, as of last night before I went to bed. The whole day yesterday I had heel pain in my right heel. Not excruciating, but not fun. I find myself compensating by shifting weight to my left foot. Not an ideal situation. I haven't done any ecises in three weeks. But last night I picked up my copy of Pain Free and read the section about feet. And then proceeded to do the four ecises:

Foot Circles and Point Flexes
Supine Calf/Hamstring Stretch
Static Extension
Air Bench

and lo and behold my heel pain was gone for those last five minutes before bed. And still absent this morning. But is with me a bit right now in the late afternoon. The book says to do these four ecises until the pain is gone for 24 hours. Then continue for one week before switching to the overall conditioning program in Chapter 13. Which I might do. Or I might call Paul again and pay another $200 for the next five skype sessions/menus with him. But for now, definitely, I will do these foot ecises each day. Just fifteen minutes and my body feels better after doing them!

The book makes a lot of sense - I'm surprised the therapy is not more well-known.

On again off again

Sorry to say this but I've slipped again. I'm not about to quit the blog, however, I hope to get back on the ecises soon. I wonder why it's so tough to keep on it!

Running and Egoscue

I don't know about other people, but it's tough for me to do Egoscue every day. I'm travelling, or I feel unenergetic, or I have too many other priority things to accomplish that day, yadda yadda. But I did do my fifth menu tonight, and this is my third day in a row back to being in the swing of Egoscue.

Supine Foot Circles & Point/Flexes - I can still only do 30. Ankles get so tired during the flexes that I have to stop at about 20 or so.

Hand-Leg Opposite Glides - takes some major coordination. Feel like I did when I learned how to play a drumset, with each limb doing something different.

Airbench - 2 minutes of it is manageable, a far cry from when I first started doing it, when I could only do 30 seconds.

I'm rereading the book about Blood Type diets and the part about exercise really got my attention this time. So much so that five days ago, in the hotel at 10pm, I ran on the treadmill in the tiny gym. Ran/walk for 30 minutes listening to music. And it was fantastic. Have run three times since and I am so happy to be back. Intense exercise makes me happy, that's all there is to it. And I have a strong suspicion that exercise like this will decrease my creaks. That's what it feels like so far anyway.

Of course my next question would be: is running too harsh on the body or not? Would love to hear people's opinions on this.

Skipped three days but now am back

I hurt my lower back playing bball three days ago, so I had to skip the last three days of egoscue. But tonight I started back on it and all is well. Just couldn't do Hand-Leg Opposite Lifts.

I'm still quite glad to be back on egoscue. My creaking seemed to increase during those three days, no kidding!

Ankle Cracks and More

Today made three days of Egoscue in a row after taking a month's vacation from it. The first two days I did Menu 5, and today I did Menu 4. I think they both take me about 35 minutes, which is a good length for me. I also jumped on the tramp and of course did my five shoulder-cracking pushups a few times today. You'll be happy to learn that I can do these five pushups a bit faster now than I could four days ago. I only go down halfway (if I touched my nose to the ground I would not be able to pull myself up) but hey it's better than not doing five halfway pushups at all. No motion every day = dysfunction and death.

Another goal I have is to get up off the floor from a cross-legged position with flair and abandon, unlike I do now (I look like a sedentary old person using her hands and elbows and all her might to push herself on her legs to stand up. Okay not that bad but close.)

The video below is my left ankle. It only cracks a little here but I took what I could get for this video. Do you like how I cut off the top of my foot? I hope in a few months from now I can show you a quiet Supine Foot Circle and Point/Flex. I bet I can.

My body feels good after doing my ecises and I am glad to be back on them. I know they are helping me.

I Started Up Again!

I am very very glad that tonight I started Egoscue back up again after not doing it for a month. I could tell a positive difference in my body after the first exercise. And then even more so after a couple more. It just makes my body feel right, letting me know how not right it was before. This past month I was just getting creakier and older feeling. And now thank God I've finally seen the light that yes I DO need to exercise every day and yes I DO need to do Egoscue to make my body feel the best that it can. I think in the back of my mind I was thinking that I don't need to do anything because I've always been tall and slim and muscular but here I am, at a bloody creaky 40, realizing that I must use it or lose it.

So today I jumped on the trampoline for twenty minutes, and did some pushups on the pushup bars (left shoulder creaking the whole time), and then tonight my fifth menu of Egoscue for the first time. I am very grateful to be back.